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Elements of CognitionPsychology

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How conscious is Thought?

• Subconscious processes: mental activities we do “without thinking”

• Nonconscious processes: mental thoughts occurring deep in our subconscious.

• “pops into your mind”

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Elements of Cognition

• Concept: mental category that groups objects, relations, or activities that are similar. Ex. Anger, joy, sadness are concepts of emotion.

• Proposition: a unit of meaning that is made of concepts that express a single idea. Ex. Opening presents make me happy.

• Mental Image: visual image of what we are thinking about.

• Cognitive Schema: mental network of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations. Ex. Senior year or a holiday

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How we make sense of our world?

• Reasoning: is a purposeful mental activity that involves operating on information in order to reach conclusions.

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1st type of Formal reasoning

• Inductive Reasoning: A form of reasoning in which a conclusion is made about the probability of some state of affairs, based on the available evidence.

• Monday: I had a delicious meal at Suzy’s diner.• Tuesday: I had a wonderful meal at Suzy’s diner• Wednesday: I had a wonderful meal at Suzy’s diner.• Therefore, I conclude that Suzy’s diner serves great meals

365 days a year!

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2nd type of Formal reasoning

• Deductive Reasoning: a form of thinking in which one draws a conclusion that is intended to follow logically from two or more statements/ideas.

• All human beings are mortal + I am a human being = Conclusion I am mortal

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Informal Reasoning

• Dialectical Reasoning: A process in which opposing facts or ideas are weighed and compared, with a view to determine the best solution.

• Jurors are asked to use Dialectical Reasoning

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Two forms of thinking

• 1. Quasi-reflective judgment: Believe that knowledge is uncertain, any judgment about the evidence is purely subjective.

• Defend a position by saying that “We all have a right to our own opinion,” as if ALL opinions are created equal.

9Forms of thinking

• 2. Reflective Judgment: Willing to consider evidence from a variety of sources and to reason dialectically.

• “Based on the evidence, I believe…”• “Here are the reasons for my conclusions….”

10Logic Problems

• Please take out a scratch sheet of paper OR you can do the following problems in your notes.

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From what side of town is each turtle?

• Four turtles, each from a different side of town, were entered in the annual turtle race.

• The turtle from the East side won the race, and Daisy came in second.

• Patsy is the sister of both turtle from the East side and the turtle from the West side.

• Fritz finished last, just after the turtle from the North side.

• Daisy and Jake are from opposite sides of town.

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Inductive Problem Solving

• Discover the rule and continue the series or supply the missing item in the series.

• 5 9 13 ? 21• 120 99 ? 57• 1 4 16 ? 256• 8 ? 64 125 216• 12 9 3 6 3 1 ?• 1 3 4 7 11 ?

13Deduction

• Find the five-digit number in which the second digit is three times the first, the third is one more than the second, the fourth is four times the first, and the last is one half more than the second. (Hint: there are no zeros in the number).

14Answer

• 26,789

• Source: Scientific American Mind; Nov/Dec. 2010 issue